Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-04
A CONFEDERATE's NARROW ESCAPE

How Prisoner was Put Up as a Marx in q
Locomotive for His Own Brother to
Shoot at.
When the Federals got possession of the
Shenandoah valley and repaired the rail-
road track and ran their trains, detach-
ments OF predatory bands made 1t busi-
ness to lie in ambush and fire at the
coaches, says writer in southern ps-
per. A good deal Of this work
was done by men belonging to limbo
den and Mosby's commands, and final
| ly, to protect themselves, the federais
used to take along a number of southern
citizens. Some would be compelled 10
ride on the engine, and the others would
be distributed through the cars, thus max
| ing the chances even that ii q volleY WAS
fired some of out own people would be
! killed. This stopped the practice of am
bushing trains, but not until the writer
had very close call from death.
l was scouting around Winchester, and
had just left farm house where I had re-
manned all night, when a squadron of
Federal cavalry struck my trail was
bounded and logged until mid-afternoon
before got clear away from them, and
during the time was put to such physi-
cal exertions that was seized with
chill about O'Clock in the afternoon and
soon became too Ill to travel. l was then
IN the woods, and there I remained until
the next day at noon, q part of
the time out of my head. / finally got
better, and partly by walking and partly
by crawling I reached q farmhouse .
mile away. The farmer was a southern
man, too old to go into the service, and 1
would have been received with all kind
ness, but for the Federals. had scarcely
entered the house when detachment of
them rode up to the gate, and ten min
uses later was being carried off pris-
oner.
The only good feature about 1t was that
l was taken for rebel deserter instead of
spy, and my treatment was, therefore,
far better. In three or four days I was
right again, and then I was ordered
aboard one Of the engines and given half
an engineers seat. Indeed, was chained
there, and when the officer who had the
mstter in charge left me he was kind
enough to say:
"There, now, If your cursed rebel
friends can fire into this side of the cab
without hitting you, let them pop awav!"
had brother at that time in Mosby's
command, and knew he had been engaged
in the work of firing upon trains 1
somehow felt that we should be fred
upon, and that should see Frank that
day, and botn events quickly came to
pass. We were not fifteen miles out Of
Winchester, and were just pulling out of
heavy cut into piece Of woods, when /
caught sight of the head and face Of
nan above log. We were running not
over fifteen miles an hour and l was look
ing into the woods. The man in ambush
was still ahead OF us when l
saw him, and we were not ten feet nearer
In the same instant saw that he had
cavalry carbine resting across the log.
and that there were four or five other
men beyond him. They were there to
fire volley into the train, and we on the
engine would get it first. 1 had only q
few seconds in which to act. The first
thing was to shout to the engineer and
fireman to drop to the floor, and the next
to wheel squarely around and shout to
Frank:
"For Gods sake, don't shoot! It's Ed
hold ont"
Franks gun was pointed full at my face
as shouted, and We looked right into
each others eyes. In that brief instant l
saw 8 horror come TO his eyes, his face
grew white IS snow, and he could not
move his lips. His finger was pulling the
trigger, and it WAS too late. A sheet Of
fame leaped up at me, something burned |
the side of my cheek. and then we had
passed on. There was but one shot. The |
other men had heard my warning In time
TO hold their fire. For minute I could
not tell whether / was badly hurt |
or had escaped scot tree. But by and
by discovered that had bullet blister
across my right cheek, and lost q lock OF
hair big enough to divide among bali 8
dozen sweethearts.
My seton in warning the engitesf 4nd
fireman was laid up to my credits but tori
the next four weeks had to keep my Ge4t
on the locomotive. 1t was the lastEtime
any train was fred on, however, I'D il
did the Federals ell the damage EGould be-
fore and after, they had to th11k me for
clearing railroad line OF dangerous
enemy. !